


Family Man

by clairejoym



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Dark Character, F/M, Gen, Neverland (Once Upon a Time), Post-Curse Storybrooke, fairy tale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-01
Updated: 2014-04-01
Packaged: 2018-01-17 20:42:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1401805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clairejoym/pseuds/clairejoym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal Cassidy never considered himself a family man. He wanted to have a family – a home – a father but he was only a dreamer. Dreaming that he would be apart of a family was greatly different than actually being apart of one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Man

**Author's Note:**

> Just a little story of what I wanted to happen to Neal rather than what did happen.

Neal Cassidy never considered himself a family man. He wanted to have a family – a home – a father but he was only a dreamer. Dreaming that he would be apart of a family was greatly different than actually being apart of one.

He isolated himself when he left Neverland, slowly integrating himself into a society that he knew nothing about. He was a thief, but not just because he didn’t have the means to secure proper living. No, he was a thief because it was a one-man job. He didn’t have to watch anybody’s back and no one watched his. He was used to being alone and taking care of someone would have slowed him down. 

He told himself that if he became a family man, he would lose that freedom and carelessness, when in reality, he was afraid. He was afraid of becoming his father and abandoning his family. He was afraid that he would fail his family. 

He was afraid.

So he never dwelled anywhere for too long. He didn’t interact with people more than he needed to. He was self-sufficient and he was fine with that.

Neal never considered himself a family man until a blonde-haired girl broke into a stolen car and consequently, broke into his heart.

He wanted her to be his family and he wanted to be hers. They were too lonely souls finding each other, crying to fill that void. They would be a family. Just the two of them.

But, like history repeating itself, his father still managed to have a hold on his life, whether he realized it or not. 

He let Emma go.

He let his dream of a family go.

He was alone and while it wasn’t ideal, it was reliable.

Neal never considered himself a family man until he was staring into the eyes of his son; eyes that shared his color but were so much like Emma’s.

So he crossed his fingers and jumped into a fucked-up family. He and Emma found each other again. He saved his son. He forgave his father. He was so ready to be loved and to love, to be accepted and to accept, to move on and finally have a home, but then his father had to mess everything up, just like he always did. The only thing that was different was that this time, when his father stabbed his grandfather, ultimately ending his life, he didn’t realize that he stabbed Neal too. 

Neal was so ready to be a family man, and it slipped away from him again.

He may not have learned a lot from other people in his life, but he learned a few things from Emma: to keep fighting for things that you want.

So, when he found himself back in the Enchanted Forest and Belle suggested a futile mission to save his father, he jumped again. He didn’t think it was going to hurt.

It did hurt.

It hurt when they found his father’s dagger with no name on it. It was blank steel, on the dining room table at his father’s castle. The Dark One’s dagger was missing, well, the Dark One. He didn’t know he could cry for his father but when he found his tears staining his cheeks, he snapped. He gripped the dagger in his hand, furious at the way his life turned out and where it was going, all while the metal cut into his hand and the blood painted the floor. He heard Belle scream but all he could think about was the pain in his heart numbing as the pain in his hand grew. When he finally dropped the dagger, he realized that there was no blood flowing from his hand.

Instead, it was burning itself into the surface of the dagger, etching Baelfire into the side.

Like father, like son.

He knew Belle left but he didn’t know when. He was disgusted with himself and tried to just live in isolation again so he couldn’t hurt anyone; so he couldn’t hurt his son like his father had. He was living a good life of solitude for a few months until he awoke to a green-skinned demon clutching his knife in her hands. She smirked at him and he knew right then how his father felt: powerless. With that dagger in her hands, he surrendered Neal or Baelfire or whoever he was and it all fell away, revealed the Dark One at its rawest form.

He was a shell, a puppet to do her bidding. Neal watched behind the eyes of the Dark One as she resurrected his father and told him the sad truth of his beloved son. He watched as the cast another curse with his father’s help just because he was so afraid for his son. He watched as everything was ripped away from everyone again just because he was now a bargaining chip that the Wicked Witch could hold against his father. He just watched, because he didn’t know what else he could do. He was useless, once again.

So, he stopped watching. He checked out. The Dark One was wearing his skin, using his face to get back into the lives of everyone he loved and as much as Neal screamed, the Dark One just smirked and led on another life, destroying countless other ones in his path. 

He would never be a family man, but if he stopped watching, at least he wouldn’t have to witness how many he would destroy.


End file.
